Mixed Meanings
by Khase Klosed
Summary: Issued a project in class Xander has to interview his family about his name; Lavelle. This cannot end well.


Title: Mixed Meanings

Author: Khase Klosed

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Don't make money off it. And I plan to give everything back only slightly mused. Torn. Bruised. And abused. No worries.

Warnings: Minor Swearing. Implied neglect/abuse. Alcoholism.

Challenge: # 399: The story behind Lavelle. Issued at Twisting the Hellmouth. (Even though it's not a crossover)

"Today class we have an exciting project to do! I want you to talk to your Mommies and Daddies. Let's see if you can find the meaning of your name. Also try to find out why your parents named you what they did. This is a project that is due next week…"

Smiling Mrs. Trente, current history teacher number three of the year, walked around the room. Her grin was the type one found on a kindergarten teacher, wide and cheerful. The smile combined with her bottle red hair up in a bun and plaid skirt created a bizarrely intimidating image. As she passed her students she made it to a specific desk belonging to a young man with dark hair. Said young man was sleeping and drooling on his history text. If possible her grin grew wider and slightly sinister.

"This is also a major project." She said smiling sweetly down at sleeping student, suddenly slammed her hands on his desk startling him awake with a yelp. "Failure to complete will result in failing the class. Is that understood Mr. Harris?" Laughter met her actions throughout the room.

"Of course Mrs. Trente. Crystal clear. Clear as in I understand. Umm wait, what am I to understand?" His reply was surprisingly clear for being asleep a few seconds prior but muffled as he wiped drool off his face.

Ignoring his reply and the additional snickers from the students, the teacher walked passed him and towards the front of the class with her smile never leaving her face.

BRING!

One Alexander L. Harris, known as Xander to all but his mother, yawned sleepily from his interrupted nap. Grabbing his book he made a face at the drool on it. In the corner of his eye he could make out the ever composed face of Cordelia make a not so composed face of utter disgust.

Turning to her followers she loudly uttered "Eww that is so gross. I wonder if he has rabies. Granted rabies are so last season so no one has them any more." She paused for a moment. "No I'm sure that is exactly what he has….."

Xander watched her as she left the room and her voice faded away. He yawned yet again, and then stretched till his back popped. Contemplating his next move, Xander decided to be extra obnoxious the next time he saw Cordelia. Decision made he turned around only to jump in surprise when he almost bumped in to his best friend. A grin spreads over his face.

"Wills! Bestest Bud of all times. I have a semi-serious question for you." He paused for a moment trying to find the right words. The grin slipped off his face for a moment, then suddenly came back much bigger. "What did we do in class today?"

"Xander!" Willow's voice carried exactly how exasperated she was with him. Giving her his best puppy eyes number 4, because lets face it this was only semi-serious, Xander could see her fight to smile.

"School is of the good. You should be learning things that will help you in the real world after high school." She scolded him.

"I fail to see how learning about Pringles and dead people will be helping me flip a hamburger." He stated with a roll of his eyes.

Giving a little huff she said "Don't sell your self short Xander. If you just tried you could do more than that. And its parabolas not Pringles."

"I prefer Pringles. At least I will get some use out of those. Salty goodness that is lunch here I come." He started to walk out of the classroom towards his locker to rid himself of his books for his best class, lunch.

"Well at least I can tell you what we did in class over lunch." Willow said with a sly little smirk on her face.

"Lunch? Oh come-on Wills! Don't be so cruel." Xander stopped in his tracks looking over his shoulder at his friend in horror.

##Page Break##

"She is the reason vampires exist. I am sure of it." Xander's sudden announcement was met with silence. He was currently sitting in the library after school with his fellow Scoobies researching the latest big bad of the week.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles looked over at Xander with a frown. "Baoribe'Ken demons have nothing to do with vampires. They are a diverse clan of intellectuals that study in earth magic. They are mortal enemies of the undead and furthermore they are an asex …"

"Woe Giles. I don't think Xander has anything against Baoribe'Ken demons." Willow hastily interrupted, trying her best to calm the irate librarian down. "Do you Xander?" She leveled a better answer me look at him.

Looking confused he replied "Of course not. I have never had any problem with Barbie Ken demons. Unless you are actually talking about Ken dolls then I might have a problem. Seriously no one is that perfect and those abs? Totally fake. Umm, not that I have been looking at Ken doll abs at all." Xander was quick to reassure.

Perched on the table reading a book Buffy drawled out with amusement "Huuhuh. Sure. Some thing you need to say to the class?" Looking up from her book with her eyebrows drawn up.

"I was talking about Mrs. Trente our history teacher." Xander grumbled out. "And if you keep doing that thing with your eyebrows you're going to get premature wrinkles." Buffy gave him a glare.

"Xander, I don't think your history teacher has any knowledge of the supernatural. She has only been in Sunnydale for two and a half weeks." Giles replied. Reaching up he grabbed his glasses and started to polish them.

"What makes you say that Xander? Because she would look like a soccer mom in dominatrix gear if she was ever turned?" Buffy asked while leafing through her book. "Ooo look, pretty picture. Oh. Wait. Now it's not so pretty." She slammed the book shut. "Done. Bored now."

"What? Gahh! Brain bleach needed. Of course not! Her only purpose is for vampires to eat her. What else?"

"Xander!" Willow chastised in shock "That is not a nice thing to say to anyone. Just because she gave everyone a project to pass the class and grins like she is overdosing on her antipsychotic pills does not mean she disserves to be eaten."

Buffy's sudden burst into laughter startled Xander and Willow out of their argument. "Did you …did you…just try to polish your glasses while polishing your glasses!" she stuttered out nearly falling off the table in mirth.

"I did no such thing Buffy. I merely realize I missed a spot." Giles protested with air of dignity that failed to be processed by the high school students. Even more so when he would not meet anyone's gaze. Laughter from all sides met his denial. Trying to ignore his student's antics he looked at Xander and asked "What is so bad about this project you teacher assigned you?"

Xander groaned and slumped into his chair with misery. "It's not so much the project as it is the contents of the project and the parental units plus one interaction. Alexander I get, Harris? Enough said. But would you want to ask your family why your middle name is Lavelle? And you will take that to your grave."

##Page Break##

Peaking around the corner one Xander Harris was on a mission. That mission was to risk life and limb to discover the origins of his name for a _grade _from his dearest family. Most of the time he and his family get along just fine on the count of they just ignore each other. That and they practiced the saying "out of sight and out of mind" with amazing results. Such current actions he was going to take were a clear violation of casa de Harris Rules of Peaceful Interactions but sacrifices must be made. Especially when Willow's Resolve Face was involved. And yes capitals are needed.

Getting back to the issue at hand he watched his Uncle Roy fiddling with his newest project. The current project was a car of undisclosed origins and looked like at one point in its life was a beautiful machine. But that was before his uncle got a hold of it.

The once running vehicle had its guts spread out every which way in various states of disrepair (He would never use the word repair or fix to describe something his uncle did after the incident involving his broken toy submarine, a beer can, one of Willow's dolls and some duck tape. Don't ask). He currently did not look like he was doing much at the moment. Just rolling a part around in his hand and mumbling at it. It looked safe to approach. Being careful to make plenty of noise in warning as not to surprise his uncle, Xander bounced up to him nearly tripping on assorted car parts.

"Hi Uncle Roy! You got a moment?"

Glancing up at him then back at the object in his hand the man grunted an unspecific noise. Yes/No/Maybe so. Let's take it as a yes.

"Thanks Uncle Roy! We are doing this project in one of my classes. Not my most favorite class that's for sure. With the crazy teacher that just wont stop grinning and grinning and really grinning it's freaky in a do what I say way. Anyways I am to ask my family members a question. Seams rather pointless to me but the teacher told us to do it and I wasn't going to do it but then there was Willow and Resolve Face, that's with capitals, and no one says no to Wills Resolve Face and ya I'll just get to the question." He babbled nervously shifting his feet side to side. "Why is my middle name Lavelle?"

His uncle was looking at him with a bemused look on his face by the time he was done with his Willow worthy on caffeine babble. He studied him for a moment with is small watery eyes squinted. Then he scratched his half bald excuse for a head.

"Your grandpa was a Lavelle on your Father's side of the family. As was his father and his father and so on. Family always named the first son Lavelle. Good man he was. Strong as an ox. Big as one too. Worked Construction. Your father hoped you would take after him rather than you grandpa on your mother's side of the family."

Well that was certainly unexpected. "That's it?" Xander was shocked. He expected something, anything, but that was not it.

"Well what did you expect boy?" his uncle grumbled out.

"Don't know. Thanks Uncle Roy." Xander was surprised to feel a smile work its way across his lips directed at the older man.

"No problem kid. Now get your ass outa here. Don't wanna see you in here again. You're distracting me."

As Xander was making his way by the corner of the shop he heard his uncle mutter something that made him groan in dismay.

"…or was his name Lavern?"

He should have remembered his uncle was a compulsive liar.

##Page Break##

His beady eyes narrowed. Studying him they made him feel the sudden urge to run and hide out of its piercing gaze. He learned that the full attention of his father was not always the best thing for his health.

"Your name huh." His father took a drink of his beer. Glancing at the T.V. he watched it for a moment. He seamed to be not really seeing what was on. His bloodshot eyes were distant and foggy. But that just might be the beer showing its ugly face.

"Your mother named you." He took another drink. Almost with a absent mind he began to work the can between his hands. It's crinkling and crackling oddly blending in with the sounds of cheers on the sport channel.

"Thought you was a girl. Damn doctor said you was a girl. Your mother was so god damn happy. She always wanted a girl." He took another drink. Xander stood quietly waiting for his old man to finish.

"A girl." He laughs quietly. "She was gonna name her Lavelle Rene. But instead she got a sissy-boy. Close enough I guess." He snorts in amusement.

"But why Lavelle?" Xander asked his father. He gave him a weird look.

"Oh that. Her favorite wine is made in Lavelle Valley, France." He smirked at Xander and tossed his empty beer can at him. "Go get me another one boy!"

##Page Break##

Sunnydale can bring the worst out in anyone. Such a thing happened to a lot of people and his mom was not excluded from this. At one point in her life she was a grade school teacher. She said she enjoyed it. Now she enjoys the bottle more and often drank to forget. Xander at this present time was lucky enough to get to his mother before the bottle did and ask her _the question_.

"I loved being pregnant. Well at least at first. The joy of creation a new life. That was until you were big enough and your movements drove me crazy." Unknown to Xander his mother was watching him move his legs restlessly and fidget in his chair.

"You drove me crazy you did. Always on the move. Constantly sitting on my bladder, punching my stomach, kicking my kidneys or just stretching you were moving around. It was uncomfortable. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and I always had to pee. None of my cloths fit me. Misery was my company. I wanted to name you Apep but your father wouldn't let me. So I settled with Alexander which means warrior. And Lavelle, which means 'fond of movement or travel'. It's Irish." She added helpfully.

##Page Break##

"So," Willow was practically jumping up and down in her excitement. "What did you find out?" Settling down next to Xander at the table she fixed her eyes on him.

"Well they couldn't decide how my name came along into being." Xander said scratching his head in confusion.

Willow gave him an odd look. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"They couldn't decide if my name came from tradition, a wine vineyard or revenge." He stated with a sigh.

Willow scrunched up her face in confusion. "I don't get it."

"Well its not like it matters now." Buffy interupted and flopped down into the chair next to Xander. "I had to stake a vampire eating Mrs. Trente last night."

Silence met her comment.

"Yes!" Xander jumped up and pumped his fist. "I don't have to turn the paper in! Take that."

END


End file.
